This book attempts to synthesize research that contributes to a better understanding of how to reach sustainable business value through information systems (IS) outsourcing. Important topics in this realm are how IS outsourcing can contribute to innovation, how it can be dynamically governed, how to cope with its increasing complexity through multi-vendor arrangements, how service quality standards can be met, how corporate social responsibility can be upheld and how to cope with increasing demands of internationalization and new sourcing models, such as crowdsourcing and platform-based cooperation. These issues are viewed from either the client or vendor perspective, or both. The book should be of interest to all academics and students in the fields of Information Systems, Management and Organization as well as corporate executives and professionals who seek a more profound analysis and understanding of the underlying factors and mechanisms of outsourcing.

Rudy Hirschheim is the Ourso Family Distinguished Professor of Information Systems in the E.J. Ourso College of Business, Louisiana State University. He has previously been on the faculties of University of Houston, Templeton College –Oxford, and London School of Economics. He has held visiting appointments at Monash University (Australia), University of New South Wales (Australia), University of Bayreuth (Germany), University of Jyvaskyla (Finland), University of Warwick (UK) and University of Paris-Dauphine (France). He is on the editorial boards of the journals: Journal of the Association for Information Systems; Information and Organization; Information Systems Journal; Journal of Strategic Information Systems; Journal of MIS; and Journal of Information Technology. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Oulu (Finland) and the University of Bern (Switzerland). He was made “Fellow” of the Association for Information Systems and then more recently given the LEO Award for lifetime achievement.

Armin Heinzl is a Professor and Chair of Business Administration and Information Systems at the University of Mannheim, Germany. He has previously been on the faculty of the University of Bayreuth and has held visiting positions at Harvard, Berkeley, Irvine and ESSEC. His research and teaching interests are software engineering processes, information systems outsourcing and information behavior. His papers have appeared in MIS Quarterly, Journal of Organizational Computing and E-Commerce, Information Systems and E-Business Management, Evolutionary Computation, Business & Information Systems Engineering/WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, and elsewhere. He serves on the editorial boards of Business & Information Systems Engineering/WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK and is the Department Editor of the Zeitschrift fuer Betriebswirtschaft (ZfB).

Jens Dibbern is a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He has previously been an assistant professor at the University of Mannheim. His research focuses on various aspects of the division of work in information systems, such as outsourcing, offshoring, virtual work, platform ecosystems, and systems integration. His previous works were published in MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the Association of Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, ACM SIGMIS Database, Information & Management, Business & Information Systems Engineering, and others. He is past associate editor of MIS Quarterly and currently on the editorial boards of Journal of the Association of Information Systems, ACM SIGMIS Database, MISQ Executive and Business &Information Systems Engineering.

“The papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Outsourcing of Information Services (ICOIS) are the basis for this discussion and text. In this fourth edition, the papers seem to coalesce into new forms and mechanisms for outsourcing. … The fact of the matter is that outsourcing presents a legion of opportunity and a plethora of challenges. The book is an interesting read that students and professionals … will enjoy.” (James Van Speybroeck, Computing Reviews, January, 2015)